I Am Cait Recap: Caitlyn Meets Hillary Clinton After Booing Her at a Debate

I was dreading last night's episode of I Am Cait, in part because when I spoke to Jenny Boylan, she suggested it was the most heated of the season so far, and because the episode had been so heavily hyped as "The Hillary Clinton episode." I'd already spent my entire weekend talking about Hillary Clinton at my neighborhood caucus, where Hillary lost but the quality of the conversation was high, with my girlfriends, over the dinner table with my family on Easter — and while I'm deeply passionate about defending and standing with her, I was bone-tired of doing so.

So I was relieved, and a little bit inspired, when Kate Bornstein introduced the Great Debate Safeword Plan of 2016. On the bus, she gently told all the women she didn't want a repeat of the Santa Fe bus incident; she didn't want anyone to feel shouted down or belittled. She proposed, and the rest of the women agreed, that they could say "God bless America" whenever someone steps over the line of civility. (Chandi, to her everlasting credit, basically spits out a sip of root beer as this plan is being proposed.)

When they get to the debate, it actually works, although the idea of them getting "to the debate" isn't entirely accurate. They're definitely at Drake University, where the debate is taking place (to throw a fun emotional wrench in things, it's also where Caitlyn's first-ever decathalon took place), but they're not in the actual audience. The room they're watching in is segregated by political party, via colored nametags, which seems … problematic. Kate, with her homemade "socialist" nametag, sits next to Caitlyn the whole evening, and even though Caitlyn starts out by complaining that all Hillary does is "give out free stuff" and then SECRETLY BOOS WHEN HILLARY WALKS ON SCREEN, the whole affair is far more civil than I'd expected. Kate drops a "God bless America" on her when she says Bernie Sanders, "like Obama, doesn't really appreciate America." (I'm oddly heartened to learn officially that Caitlyn dislikes Sanders as much as Clinton, and am unclear why she isn't saying as much publicly.) Kate and Cait find common ground in disagreeing about Sanders's hard-line climate change stance. It's small, grinding progress, but reiterates this simple but revolutionary question at the core of I Am Cait: How do we talk to each other about our beliefs without trying to talk one another into sharing those same beliefs?

Frankly (and fortunately), though, the actual Hillary encounter was nothing more than a quick hello in a hotel lobby. And it seemed to be a legitimate coincidence, although I can't wait for the Kardashian/Jenner truthers to weigh in. Caitlyn did seem a little eager to charge right over and say hello, which doesn't necessarily track with how anti-Hillary she'd been throughout the episode, but then again, maybe it was just one celebrity in a room just walking over to the other celebrity in the room to say hi. And of course, Bill would manage to turn up, like, 10 minutes later for a slightly better-lit photo opportunity.

The other big Iowa stop is Graceland University, Caitlyn's alma mater and, coincidentally, the school where two of Ella's high-school classmates are currently attending. One of the classmates (whose name we're never given) was Ella's first big high school crush; the other, Michael, is the crush's best friend. There's a lot of ramp-up to her seeing the boys, in a way that's both very sweet (the other women are really excited for Ella, doing her hair, but also helping her feel grounded and prepared to see people from her past) and very heartbreaking, because you know from the first time Ella says her crush's name and it's bleeped out that he won't be showing up. And he doesn't. But Michael does, and he's kind and respectful and not at all embarrassed to be there with and for Ella. It's not the lovely little moment the reality show wanted, probably, but it's really quite nice.

And the question-and-answer session the women do is really lovely too. Chandi speaks up about being transgender and being a person of faith, Ella gets to speak with and to her peers, and the women are asked about the joy in their life, something Chandi says later they aren't asked about often. Caitlyn's former coaches are there, proud of her almost to the point of tears. It all sounds small, but a panel like this at a rural, Christian college is pretty incredible.

Also, during the question-and-answer session, Kate Bornstein reveals that she has a daughter who's a high-ranking executive in Scientology, who Kate hasn't spoken to since her daughter was 9 years old. Could we get I Am Kate next season?

There's also a stopover in Dubuque, Iowa, to meet a community organizer named Rachel who stayed in a small town while she was transitioning because, well, people in small towns need to know trans people too. She brings the women to a fundraiser for her organization, where they all mingle and deal blackjack on a riverboat casino. It's a little weird and very cool, especially when Kate explains, "They got to meet any number of us [trans women] and see that we're sweet."

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